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Would be interesting to know, how is the condition of the road from Vridhachalam to Chidambaram bypass via Sethiyarthoppe.

Compared to the Namakkal - Musiri - Tanjore route, this is much better in terms of driver fatigue!

Thanks to all who advised on this route
raghu

Related post:

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route...ml#post4110764


Even I was there last month. 532 really helps. Especially in avoiding Ulundurpet and Vridhachalam towns. These are the ones wihch cause bulk of fatigue on this route. But yes, Jayamkondan-T Palur-KMU still needs to be endured in terms of truck traffic. However still that is nothing compared to Trichy-Tanjore-KMU option.

Also one needs to look for the 532 exit at Thalaivasal bypass. Look for Chidambaram board for this exit.

Dear Ampere,

Taking some friends to Velankanni on 02 Feb, please advice if this would be a better route (NH 79-532 onto Chindambran-Velankanni) to follow then the usual one via Trichy-Thanjavur??.

Thanking you

Colonel J Mayne

Its worth taking this option. Simply because all the way till Vridhachalam, its an awesome drive. I read from previous posts that Vridhachalam-Chidambaram may not be all the great. But I would still suggest this option. Beyond Chidambaram the roads are good till Sirkazhi. It used to be good till Karaikal also; but I dont know the current conditions.

So to summarise, yes I would prefer this route to Trichy/Tanjore. Distractions in terms of towns to cross on this highways are lesser.

Dear Ampere,

Thank you so much for an immediate reply. Will try this Route and on return will give a feedback. We are going onto Rameswaran-Kanyakumari-Trivandrum-Alleppey-Munnar-back to Bengaluru.

Regards

Colonel J Mayne

I have been meaning to post since my Kumbakonam trip in December.

This thread is choc-a-bloc with useful information.

Hotel Rama near Attur (recommended by @suresh_gs and @ravib) is especially useful, really nice Indian food with facilities.

True. But what I have noted, one usually tends to break at least by Salem. Hence mostly breakpoints beyond Salem are skipped (esp if you are coming from Bangalore). Has happened the few number of times I have driven.

I couldn't find any thread on this subject, so creating a new one. Mods, please merge with any existing thread if available.

Completed a trip to Thiruvaiyaru for a wedding function couple of days back and I'm sharing the stay experience. Since there is no proper stay available at Thiruvaiyaru, we preferred to stay at Tanjore.

Star Residency a.k.a Hotel Temple Tower

Website : http://www.starresidencyhotels.com/t.../accomodations

Address : Hotel Temple Tower 20/1 A S.M. Road, Next to Ramanathan Hospital Bus Stop, Tanjore - 613007

Mobile : 7708390999 / 7708068150 / 77080 68153

Tel: 4362- 276333 / 34 / 37

Email: sales@starresidencyhotels.com / infotanj@starresidencyhotels.com

Few snaps
Entrance


Rooms



PS: Images were taken from Google

Location:
Here



Hotel is located very close to Brihadeeswarar Temple, Tanjore Railway station and the market.

Facilities :
- Parking
- Multi cuisine Restaurant & Bar
- Spa
- Travel Desk
- Free Wifi
- Laundry Service
- Safe Deposit Lockers
- Conference halls
- Driver accommodation

Room types :
- Standard
- Executive Grand
- Suite

About the Hotel & rooms :
We booked 2 standard double rooms, one through Goibibo and other through MakeMyTrip.
- Parking for hardly 20 cars (Open parking)
- Reception and Staffs were extremely friendly and quick to act
- Rooms were decently sized, clean and neat.
- Every room is equipped with individual AC and Geyser
- Satellite TV and Direct dialing
- Extra bed served at additional cost (900 INR)
- 500 MB High speed wifi data provided for free of cost / day (after which either live with low speed data or top up by paying the additional fee)
- 12:00 Check-out time
- Early check-in & late check-out options available (based on availability)

PS: I prefer booking this hotel through any third party sites (MakeMyTrip, Goibibo, ClearTrip, etc) rather than booking from their site or directly in person. These sites offer discounts for over 50% and I managed to get one Standard Double room for less than 900 INR and other for 1200 INR net (against their regular tariff of 2500 INR + Tax) Only advantage of direct booking is 24 hours check-out and complimentary breakfast.

Rating :
Location : 4/5
Space : 4/5
Cleanliness : 4.5/5
Staff Behavior : 5/5
Parking : 3/5
Facilities : 4/5
Tariff : 5/5 (based on the rates I booked)
Dinning : NA (we had nothing except a cup of Coffee)
Overall Experience : 4/5

Do I recommend to others? YES

Most queries about Tanjore/KMU we discuss @

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route...queries-3.html



As regards to hotel, yes its a good one. Also if you are looking for rooms en-mass, there is another places called Abis Inn. They have basically converted an apartment complex to a hotel. A room here is basically an apartment!

A decent attached restaurant at best. Not anything to complain. But yes Temple tower restaurant is more upmarket.

Drove from Bangalore-Kumbakonam-Bangalore over the weekend to attend a condolence.
Took the usual route via Bangalore-Salem-Attur-V.Koot Road-Veppur-Vridhachalam Bypass-Jayankondam-T.Palur-Kumbakonam in both ways.
Road conditions are excellent 99.9%. Nothing to complain about. :thumbs up

Rented a Revv self drive car and left on friday evening from home at 5.45 pm as the bad news came in. As it was raining, it took solid 1.5 hours to reach from C.V.Raman Nagar to Madiwala in inch-by-inch moving Bangalore traffic. :Frustrati

Finally crossed Silk board and able to climb up BETL (phew) and reached Hosur RTO to pay TN permit fee. It was super simple process and paid just Rs. 100 for one week and took hardly 5 minutes.

Return was on Sunday post lunch and was a peaceful drive with very less traffic, thanks to India-Pakistan match!

Not sure if this was called out in this/other threads. The good news is that after Salem towards, except for Rama's cafe restaurant so far we didn't had any good/decent stop over so far. A2B seems to be strategically placing all their restaurants in highways, and finally we have one to stop for decent break.

A new A2B is now opened in Attur in highways itself, just couple of kms after Rama's cafe restaurant, that will come on your right while going from Salem towards V.Koot Road/Ulundurpet.

https://goo.gl/maps/C9vM3xABjXK2

It is a good stop over for all those who are heading towards Kumbakonam/Chidambaram/Mayiladuthurai and south east destinations.

-Ravi

Nice! A very good stop no doubt, but I still think it will be good for the folks who are coming back from the destinations you mentioned. Because when towards KMU/Chidambaram many would still prefer to have a break before Salem (or at Salem). Nevertheless good to know there is another option.

Last weekend, I did my maiden Bangalore-Kumbakonam trip by car. The details in this thread was very useful. Particularly the post by ravib (Post #206).
The basic premise was to take bath in River Kaveri (Kaveri Pushkaram) at or near Mayiladuthurai. Also to visit the Kalyanasundareswarar Temple at Thiruvelvikudi (near Kuttalam) to complete a prayer made by my parents.
The vaahan for the trip was my Zest XMS Revotron. My parents, wife and daughter accompanied me in this trip. I have been to Kumbakonam/Mayavaram few times but this was my first trip by car.
Let me add my 2 cents to the wealth of information here since I'm too lazy to write a travelogue of my own :)

Day-1 (Saturday) we started from C V Raman Nagar, Bangalore around 6.45am. Had our breakfast break at Hotel Adhith bhavan near Perandapalli. Crossed Salem by-pass by 11.15am. Took our lunch break at Ramas Cafe Veg around 12.30pm. First plan was to try taking a dip at Kaveri at Thiruvaiyaru. So, I took a right turn and exited NH79 at Thalaivasal. Thalaivasal to Veeraganur (SH701?) then joined SH157 continued southwards through Krishnapuram till Perambalur bypass. Took left turn here until I hit NH38 (Chennai-Trichy highway). Took a right turn again moving southwards, then took left turn into NH136 towards Ariyalur. Took Ariyalur bypass, then reached Thiruvaiyaru via Paluvur-Thirumanur. Distance of about 410 kms. All roads and bypasses were smooth and wide. Only the odd speed-hump or pothole. Excellent roads, on the whole. We reached Thiruvaiyaru around 3.30pm only to find that there is no water in river Kaveri (yet). Enquiries with locals informed us that authorities have opened water at Kallanai dam earlier that day and water was expected to reach Thiruvaiyaru in a day or two. So we visited Aiyarrapar Temple which opens at 4pm. Beautiful temple and one of the Paadal Petra Sthalam. There is special location in this temple praharam from where if one calls the name "Aiyarappa" loudly, it echoes seven times. Wonderful engineering and thoughtfulness of our ancestors. Circumambulating the temple prakara is a usual tradition in most temples but this is prohibited in this temple. Thiruvaiyaru is also known for the home and Samadhi of Saint Thyagaraja, one of the greats of Carnatic music.

After darsan, we decided to go to Kumbakonam where we planned to stay overnight at the well-known Ayyangar Guest House. We reached there at 6.30pm. It rained very heavily immediately afterwards for about an hour. Next morning, we first went to Mayiladuthurai where town authorities had made elaborate arrangements for pilgirms to take dip at Kaveri. This was near Kashi Vishwanathar temple on Mahadanam Street. We parked car near Mayuranathar temple and walked to the pushkaram. Since it was a Sunday, there was quite a bit of pilgrim crowd in the town. But, credit to town authorities and local police who had made reasonably good arrangements and crowd-control for this event. Road between Kumbakonam and Kuttalam was good. But below average between Kuttalam and Mayiladuthurai, quite a few potholes have formed.

After our bath at Kaveri, we proceeded to the Kalyanasundareswarar Temple at Thiruvelvikudi (near Kuttalam). This is a quaint little temple with nice scenery all around it and has a temple pond nearby. 4-5 cars can be parked near to the temple. After pooja, we started from the temple around 12.30pm. Return route was Thiruvelvikudi - Alangudi - Pandanallur - Karuputticheri - Anaikarai - Gangaikondacholapuram - Jayamkondan - Andimadam - Virudhachalam bypass - Veppur - V Koot Road junction - Attur bypass - Salem bypass - Krishnagiri - Bangalore. Roads were excellent throughout, even the roads through villages and small towns. The NH532 between Virudhachalam bypass to V Koot Road needs special mention for its excellent condition and exquisite beauty. We reached C V Raman Nagar by 9.00pm.

Overall travel distance for the round-trip was 950kms. The vehicle, Zest Petrol did well to absorb all small undulations on the road. Rear sear comfort was good for my family. Not much fatigue for anybody even after travelling 950kms in 2 days. Fuel efficiency according to MID was 18.7kmpl which is usually higher than actual FE by 2 kmpl.

I will try to post some snaps later since all snaps were taken by my wife in her mobile camera :D.

This is great to hear. Last I remember reading about it, the Veeraganur option was just about average.


Nice info. People mostly visit here either for Tyagaraja or Thingaloor.

Apart from Thiruvelvikudi there are many other places along the old SH22 (Pompuhar road). Thirukodikaval, Thiruloki and Kadiramangalam. Apart from the Navagraha temples. Nice places.


Was Alangudi on the list? Else that would have been a big detour. The Chidambaram-Veppur-Thalaivsal NH has really made big strides. Was the toll open ? They were constructing when I was there last time.

Yes. But we could not do too many temples this time. Definitely they are on the radar for future trips. My parents have been to all Paadal Petra Sthalams in India & Nepal. My turn will come soon :)


Oh, I did not mean Alangudi, the Guru kshetram. There was another Alangudi - a small village en-route between Tiruvelvikudi to Pandanallur. Map shown below for your reference.




Do you mean Nathakarai Toll plaza between Thalaivasal and V.Koot Road junction? Yes, it is functional. They had a Fastag lane as well. When I was returning towards Bangalore, the guard manning the entry to Fastag lane was on a break and a barrier was in place. So even though I had the tag, I had to go one of the non-Fastag lanes and pay by cash. But not a big deal since there was no queue in any lane.

Couple of pics from Kaveri Pushkaram at Mayiladuthurai







Tiruvelvikudi Temple



Tiruvelvikudi Temple Tank with our Zest in foreground